Democracy Dies in Darkness

Opinion This year, be thankful for AI in medicine

The technology is making health care more accurate and less expensive.

4 min
A radiologist uses a magnifying glass to check mammograms for breast cancer in Los Angeles. (Damian Dovarganes/AP, File)
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If you’re struggling to come up with something you’re grateful for this Thanksgiving, here’s a development all feastgoers can celebrate regardless of their political leanings: Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing medicine, making health care more accurate and less expensive for everyone.

AI is still in its infancy, yet it is already promising to transform how physicians do their jobs. Take, for example, cancer screenings. One controlled trial from 2022 found that software trained to scan images from colonoscopies was able to cut in half the miss rate for potentially cancerous lesions. A 2024 review of studies similarly found that screenings for skin cancer aided by AI were more accurate than those without the technology. Another review found similar results for breast cancer screenings, while also showing that AI reduced the workload of radiologists by 68 percent.